Just when you think things can’t possibly get more stupidly tyrannical, they do. Probably because tyranny is stupid. Or at least, it relies upon connivance with stupidity. The stupidity of those who think a little tyranny is just fine – and don’t think more will inevitably follow.
A bill proposed in California – where else? – would outlaw teens up to 16 years old from riding in the front passenger seat if they are not “tall enough” and up the mandatory child safety (booster) seat requirement to 13, for “smaller children.”
“Citing crash statistics that show small-framed children, regardless of age, are disproportionately hurt in crashes when not in the back seat or using a booster seat, traffic safety advocates are pushing for a controversial bill that would ban teens up to 16 years old from sitting in the front seat if they’re not tall enough.”
Italics added.
“The bill would require all children younger than 10 to use booster seats and bar all those under 13 from sitting in the front seat. The pending measure also would require children as old as 13 to use a booster seat unless they meet the same size criteria.” Those found not in compliance face fines up to $490.
It would be left up to cops to decide whether a teen is “tall enough” to ride up front – or “small enough” to still need to sit in back or be swaddled in a safety seat. Here are the criteria:
1. Does the child sit all the way back against the seat?
2. Do the child’s knees bend comfortably at the edge of the seat?
3. Does the belt cross the shoulder between the neck and arm, resting on the collarbone?
4. Is the lap belt as low as possible, touching the thighs?
5. Can the child stay seated like this for the whole trip?
“God forbid something happens, we want our children to be safe,” says Lori Wilson, the Communist (whoops, Democrat) politician who is pushing what could become California’s newest saaaaaafety law come Nov. 4, when the state will hold a vote on the measure. If passed, this will probably metastasize to other states because CA serves as the leading edge of the camel’s nose when it comes to saaaaaaaaaaaafety.
Is it any wonder America has become a land characterized by – how to put this gently – delayed development?
And who are these “traffic safety advocates”? Is this an elected position? It is a busybody position. Busybodies used to be a neighborhood annoyance. They are now a professional class of nose-in-your-business people who – among other things – assert a proprietary interest in other people’s children. In young adults, for that matter. A 16-year-old used to be considered just that, i.e., an almost-adult who could be trusted to sit in the left front seat; i.e., to drive a car on an unrestricted license (once upon a time) and do almost everything else – other than buy cigarettes or booze – that a grown-up could and by 18, could legally do those things also.
The feigned-fawning “concern” of busybodies for the “safety” of other people’s children (and young adults) is interesting, both psychologically as well as politically. There is coercion masked as “concern.” A friend expresses concern, perhaps, about something you’re doing he considers unwise.
A busybody (who is not your friend) demands you be forced to do as he says.
Note that no one is debarred from having their teenager ride in the back – or in a saaaaaaaaaaaaaafety seat – if they believe it to be wise for them to sit in one. Parents used to have the right to lay down rules for their children. Tyrants lay down rules for other people’s children.
They make children of other adults via such rules, too.
This metastasis began harmlessly enough – or so it seemed to people not smart enough to understand where it would inevitably lead. It’s just common sense to require that all new vehicles be equipped with seat belts, they said – back in the mid-’60s – and the dumb ones agreed, believing that’d it be nothing more than that. Then the professional busybodies demanded these belts be worn – this began in the ’80s. It became a traffic offense to not “buckle up.” An offense against whom – and why? – are questions rarely asked. Probably because these questions are hard to answer.
Then came the Safety Seat Thing – as inevitably as a leaky roof leads to mold spots on the ceiling. It was merely that these safety seats were available; it was that everyone who had kids had to buy and use them. Kind of like our recent experience with “masks” – and that’s not a coincidence, either – because one thing does follow on the heels of the prior thing. A culture habituated to the idea that everyone must do the same things – as decreed by the professional busybodies – will decree more and worse and target those who decline to do the same thing as everyone else.
Just as inevitably, it gets ever-more-stupid (and ever-more-tyrannical) because it has to. Because doin’ right ain’t got no end – as the rabid Union cavalry officer portrayed by Bill McKinney in the great Clinton Eastwood movie, The Outlaw Josey Wales put it.
So it ought not to be the least bit surprising that “concerned” professional busybodies now want 16-year-olds to sit in back and teens as old as 13 to be strapped into saaaaaaaaaaafety seats. More finely, they want laws passed forcing parents to make their near-adult teenagers sit in them – humiliating both of them in the process. 
The cultish obsession with saaaaaaaaaaaaafety is a very dangerous thing because there’s no end to it – per McKinney’s character in the movie. If a 13-year-old has to be strapped in back – in a saaaaaaaaaaaafety seat – then why not a sixteen-year-old?
Why not adults, for that matter?
Do you begin to see?
If course, seeing takes thinking – as opposed to feeling. And what’s wanted – by the ones who understand what saaaaaaaaaaafety really means – is a society full of feeling adults who never think about anything.
. . .
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I could be remembering incorrectly, but weren’t mask mandates also framed as “Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety” during the height of COVID hysteria? After all, the billionaire sociopaths & corporate media also ran narratives during that time such as “Nobody’s safe until everyone’s safe!” and “Nobody is safe until EVERYONE is vaccinated!” It’s a surprise the Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety Cult didn’t also try to decree that ALL drivers MUST wear a face diaper when driving an automobile using some nonsensical Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety excuse.
So glad I was 16 in the 1980’s. Got my FULL drivers license on my 16th birthday.
Survived sitting in the front seat MUCH younger than 16.
Same here, Rich –
I remember it well. Specifically, I remember feeling like a man the day I got my DL and put away my bicycle. In those days, kids rode bikes. Adults drove cars. You became one – or damn close – the day you were old enough to drive (legally) just the same as other adults. Today, the growing-up process is retarded. By the state. Everything is done to keep young adults in a kind of ongoing childhood that extends well into their 20s. It is on purpose, too. Delaying the age of functional adulthood infantilizes people. In WW II, there were men just barely older than 18 piloting combat aircraft and officers not much older commanding troops in battle.
I remember reading stories of young men fudging their ages to enroll in the service so as to enter World War 2. Even scroogle admits up to 200,000 were willing to lie so as to serve. Now? Most are too overweight. And now booster seats for teenagers? My Lord how things have changed and not for the good.
David Farragut commanded a ship at age 12.
1980 something. Brother and I, around 8 and 6, both in the front seat of a Pinto. sister was an infant in a baby bed in back. Mom crossed the lane on the highway and we skidded to a stop in a motel parking lot after she trashed a towed van going the other way.
Since I’m typing this, I didn’t die. Suffered a bump on the nose that wasn’t hard enough to bleed.
Sure, it could have been worse, but according to Kalifornia, we should be laying at the side of the road being picked by vultures.
The problem is airbags, which have killed people. Especially smaller people. So surviving a crash as a child, sitting in the front seat, back then, might not happen now in modern cars. Hence the push for child seats and seating in the rear seats. It’s to avoid being killed by the airbags. Although I do think they are going way too far with this.
Amazing these self professed Safety Experts (including Sean Duffy) advocate stupid traffic regulations while totally ignoring Lane Discipline – not to mention overlooking vehicles with a single red rear light indicating tail, brake and turn signal functions.
Yet another example of the infantilization (and feminization) of American culture.
I’m old enough to remember when 16-year-old kids fucked in the car and they were married patents by 18.
My high school (graduated 1983) had a smoking lounge for juniors and seniors. 18 year-old seniors would go to the bar across the street at 2:00 when school got out. Back when the drinking age was 18, very often if you were 16, you were “close enough.” True story: when I was 16, me and a buddy got fake IDs. We went to buy beer at a small country store. The girl at the counter looked at the ID, laughed, said “That’s fake” — and sold it to us anyway. I remember professors openly smoking in class while lecturing, and every college had an on-campus bar.
You could actually get your airman certificate at age 16 and become a licensed pilot. I think that may still be true, but obviously that is a vestigial artifact from an entirely different country.
Everywhere around me today I see people who are ostensibly “adults” who act like fucking children. Mostly woman, but plenty of men too. It’s disgusting.
You see a lot of this as Halloween approaches. It used to be that kids were done with Halloween by fifth grade. Now you see sixty-year old grandmothers with skull tattoos fetishizing this stupid shit.
I know 16 yo pilots. Ticket is $10k unless family member is CFI. A worthwhile fixer upper plane will be 6 figures soon. Aviation families usually have a few nice ones to use. We other 99.5% cant get access to this. Its also being attacked from all angles
I read that the number of licensed pilots has dropped by 1/3 since the 1970s… while the population has increased from 200 million to 330 million.
Like everything else, aviation used to be far more accessible to middle-class people in the 1960s and 1970s than it is today.
Speaking of aviation, I remember as a child in the 1970s my grandmother taking me to the airport to look at airplanes… no metal detectors, no cops, no nothing. You could walk right up to the gate whether you had a ticket or not. You showed your ticket to the employee if you wanted to board and you got on. No ID, nothing. It was like boarding a city bus.
Absolutely, X-
A buddy of mine (poster here, Graves) is a private pilot. The cost of becoming used to be within the means of middle class people. It’s now a rich man’s hobby. I thought about getting a private pilot’s license, which I could maybe swing in terms of cost. But the cost of owning even a basic single engine aircraft – plus storage and all the other peripherals – is comparable to buying a top-of-the-line luxury brand SUV.
“But the cost of owning even a basic single engine aircraft – plus storage and all the other peripherals – is comparable to buying a top-of-the-line luxury brand SUV.”
And that’s for a 50-70 year old airplane. A NEW airplane like a Carbon Cub is 300-500k. A new Cirrus SR22 is $800k.
Getting to your solo checkride is do-able, probably $10-12k in instructional costs. One way to defray costs after that is to join a club. Another economical way is to get some instruction, and then go with a $20-30k Part 103 ultralight like an Aerolite or a Kolb.
The private high school I work at is bucking that trend. We just started an aviation program. A pair of flight simulators is what they start with. Quite a few kids interested in it.
Aspen high school has run an aviation program for decades. While your kid is learning to code, their kids are learning to fly.
Even civilian drones are under fire and becoming more expensive as the FAA tries to rid the skies of those pesky things. I try not to succumb to conspiracy theory thinking but I have to think the $80-$100 billion established aviation industry might not want to open up the sky to just anyone. They have a nice little bilateral oligopoly that keeps prices high and service quality low. Keeping it expensive helps keep the terrorists (and general riffraff) out too.
The Ukraine war has the Pentagon in a tizzy because $1500 drones can take out billion dollar tanks, and DHS thinks everyone buying a drone is a potential terrorist. So they’re about to shut out the US to DJI, the biggest and arguably best drone manufacturer in the world. Meanwhile every US manufacturer has shifted their business plans away from civilian missions to military and first responders because that’s where the money is.
Safety Uber Allies.
This town is filling up with “fawn crossing” signs placed by concerned Karens. Some of whom stand in the park waving 10mph cars to slow down where those giraffe rats are 30ft off the street. Insane.
Just like the DUI laws, enforcement and or fines will only fall on the otherwise law abiding responsible folks. The animal crew members will ignore this as they do most every other reg, since they have no real resources to grab, no way to pay fines, and will disappear into the mist after chopping off that ankle monitor. This is the “normal” here in WA the land of equity policing and restorative justice.
Net result? Nothing will change, the low lifes will keep driving irresponsibly with the usual headon crashes and roll overs and “ejected from the vehicle” deaths. See Stevens Pass here in WA last weekend. National news this morning showed body cam vid, recovery of a baby (it survived) pinned under a rolled small SUV. So, if it was in the mandated car seat, why was it outside after the roll over? Better yet, if the driver wasn’t a moron they wouldn’t have rolled in the first place. Usual suspects and the SUV had after market chariot wheels with ultra low profile tires. Stereotypes don’t arrive out of nowhere.
Off-topic but interesting — here’s a 25-year projection of state populations. Growth is expected in the West (with California in the slow lane), Texas, and the Southeast (with Florida leading).
https://tinyurl.com/rpy73tcv
On the other hand, populations of heartland states in the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys are seen as stagnant. So are the mid-Atlantic (NY-NJ-PA) and New England, where oppressive busybody regulation makes it difficult to live and costly to build.
An idea from a generation ago — taking over New Hampshire and turning it into a libertarian paradise — just didn’t work out. 🙁
Sponsoring an intrusive, paternalistic child saaaaafety bill is part of a larger personality syndrome. Rep. Lori Wilson’s autobiographical profile goes on and on about her “firsts” as a woman and a black person — attributes which she was born with. But wait, there’s more:
“Assemblywoman Wilson is the first legislator in the history of California to openly discuss being the parent of a transgender child.”
https://a11.asmdc.org/biography
Let’s talk about safety and transgenderism. “A new study from the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law finds that 81% of transgender adults in the U.S. have thought about suicide, 42% of transgender adults have attempted it, and 56% have engaged in non-suicidal self-injury over their lifetimes.” — UCLA School of Law
Transgenderism is overwhelmingly, unambiguously DANGEROUS to children. Many states now ban transgender surgery on children, who lack the maturity to make life-altering judgments about their developing sexuality.
You have to wonder to what extent Lori Wilson not only accepted, but may even have pushed her child into sexual mutilation. In any event, she is patently disqualified to advocate for ‘child safety’ of any kind, and probably should be prosecuted for battery of her child.
“Transgenderism” is a manifestation of serious mental illness. So is self-destructive and suicidal behavior. The fact that a mentally ill person would engage in both makes perfect sense.
IOW its an idiot.
With this attack on driving an automobile seemingly worldwide, I’m surprised California isn’t going further than this bill being pushed and outright seeking to BAN teenagers learning to drive under guise of “Saaaaaaaaaaafety”.
Hi John – Don’t give them any ideas 😆 they are beyond demented!
Hi Mike,
Well we are talking California under current Governor Gavin Newsom, who says he’s considering running for president in 2028. I watched an interview Jimmy Dore had with someone last week about some of the shady stuff Newsom is doing as Governor, such as signing a law overriding local land use laws in the Palisades area so rich developers can build apartment buildings as high as 9 stories tall where single family homes once stood but were destroyed by the Pacific Palisades fire.
I shudder at the thought of Greusom Newsom being President. I think a good campaign slogan for him would read: “Bringing The Misery Of California To The Rest Of America”.
The thought of Gavin Newsom being President makes my skin crawl, but there are people who hate Trump soooooooo much that they’ll vote for him if he says something like “I’ll undo the damage done by this invasive species” (He actually called Trump an “Invasive species” in a recent interview). For all the people who screech “No Kings!” & “No to authoritarianism!”, they sure don’t say SQUAT when Gavin Newsom acts in a way that they constantly accuse Trump of.
Dishonesty is an institutional hallmark of the Cali lifestyle.
Are you a member?
The “It’s For The Children” crowd has a vested interest in seeing Childhood expanded as much as possible.
It actually started in the late 1800’s and the Progressive Era. Mandatory GovCo school attendance laws, “child” labor laws and age-of-consent laws flourished like mushrooms in a spring pasture. It’s a religion to these busybodies and a source of power, prestige and cash.
Prohibition of alcohol and various natural plants gave them even more power. Once that ratchet clicks in the direction of tyranny it never goes back.
We moved to North Carolina in 1983. Not long after our arrival two laws went into effect. One was the banning of smoking lounges in schools. These areas were for STUDENTS, not teachers. The age of tobacco purchase was 14 at the time. The other outlawed women dancing topless in a place that served alcohol. This applied to those dancers under 16 years old.
It’s part and parcel of the Protestant Pietist Millenialist project that Rothbard has written of extensively. The want to make things right that God got wrong. Until we get back to recognizing that people who can have children are no longer children we will continue down this tyrannical path.
Funny thing about “It’s For The Children” crowd. They seem to be strangely silent when it comes to the sex trafficking of said children they are so concerned about. “Safety For The Children” seems to be whatever the hell (and when) they want it to be.
They’re also strangely quiet about sending them off to die in wars for the military industrial complex once they turn 18.
“But Bryce, we’ve gotta Saaaaaaaaaaave Democracy in Ukraine as there’s a butcher named Vladimir Putin who’s gotta be stopped no matter what!” (Heavy sarcasm)
“It’s just common sense to require that all new vehicles be equipped with seat belts, they said – back in the mid-’60s – and the dumb ones agreed, believing that’d it be nothing more than that”
Being young and dumb in the 1980’s I would have said that mandating seatbelts in cars was a “good thing,” not knowing the nature of the tyrants calling for saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety. In the 1980s, I entertained dialog with them in order to soften their position on the 55 mph national maximum speed limit. That tactic might have worked temporarily, but probably not. It might have swayed people in the middle to listen to our arguments. I don’t know. I guess I was one of those dumb ones. Not this time.
Times have changed, however, and there is no making deals with these types of people. None. They crossed the line in the 1960s, but we didn’t know it.
Sometime in the early 2000s their arguments became outright self serving lies, increasingly obvious to anyone with ears to hear and eyes to see.
They are an enemy to be vanquished.
Beyond stupidity
Nazifornia
My Cherokee’s seats are “sporty” buckets that pretty much are adult sized versions of child seats. There’s no having a stretch or even turning to look out the back window, the headrest prevents one from rolling your neck around and the side bolsters that most car reviews praise lock you in place so the airbag doesn’t miss the target in the unlikely event of a collision.
Pretty soon with self-driving that isn’t really self-driving, maybe they’ll include a busy box option. “Push the squeaky button every minute or the car will stop!” Or make it like the old Simon game, matching lights and sounds in sequence to make sure the driver is awake and paying attention…
Were f*cked.
It started with seat belts and morphed into safety belts. The problem with safety is it allows you to become complacent because you figure you can’t get hurt. For example; I was up on a couple sections of scaffolding this weekend, no guard rails, toe boards or harness. Guess what I lived! Of course I had to stay focused on what I was doing and there was no ice or snow to worry about. That said I actually prefer a guard rail but the scaffold I could borrow didn’t come with it so I allowed for it.
Like everything, eventually you reach the point of diminishing returns where insane lengths are gone to eke out a percentage point or two reduction.
It’s a shame the inhabitants of California are batshit crazy. Otherwise, it’d be such a lovely place.
It’s a shame that beautiful, resource rich California has been taken over and the people subjugated by communists. Free men like me wouldn’t tolerate it and left. Those who would tolerate it are trapped in the ever closing net, regardless of their wants and needs.
You can’t put up with communists/fascists. It’s us or them, and they at least realize it.
It was so in the early 90s. Death by internet fixation.
Not all of us are crazy, but we’re too few to make a difference in the elections.
Maybe we should make sure they have clean diapers on, as well. A bottle, too, perhaps, for the ride home? Pacifier for their mouths if they are squawking? I suppose then, that they should not be allowed to get their driver’s license until they are 21…or at this rate, 25 (picking a random number)? So, why then, should the men be forced to register for the draft at 18 at the rate of delayed adulthood? At they rate they are going, there will be adult, assisted living homes for those refusing to grow up. Or stand up and demand to be treated like one.
The age to join the military is 18, while the drinking age is 21. Apparently, young adults are old enough to risk their lives in military combat but just not mature enough to have a drink. The military needs cannon fodder to fight their stupid, evil wars.
And there’s a reason for a maximum age of 35: Not just because body parts start to hurt for no reason, but because people’s BS detection is generally well honed by then.
It’s actually younger where they find taking any random person just won’t work. The draft is currently only 18 to 25 for that reason. They will let you enlist (or get a commission) for your first go-round up 35 but I suppose that they figure if you volunteer mentally they can probably work with you. They’ll let you re-enlist if you’re older and have extended eligibility from prior service but unless you’re general/flag staff your cap is from 39 to 42 depending on branch.